BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Dede Alpert, Chair
1999-2000 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 578
AUTHOR: Poochigian
AMENDED: April 5, 1999
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 7, 1999
URGENCY: Yes CONSULTANT:James Wilson
SUMMARY
This bill, an urgency measure, requires that the test
publisher who is selected to provide tests for the state's
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program must
offer to sell school districts customized reading lists
that would be distributed to parents along with score
reports.
BACKGROUND
Current law requires that all students in grades 2 through
11 be tested in the spring of each year on a standardized,
commercially published ("off-the-shelf"), test of basic
skills that is designated by the State Board of Education.
This law establishes the Standardized Testing and Reporting
(STAR) program, under which school districts are required
to contract with the commercial test publisher who has been
designated by the State Board, and who has agreed to
provide the designated standardized test in accordance with
specified conditions.
The State Board has currently designated the Stanford
Achievement Test, form 9, (SAT9 or Stanford 9) test
published by Harcourt Brace. This test provides
individual student scores that are cross-referenced to the
publisher's national test taking population ("national
norm"), and Harcourt Brace is under contract with
individual school districts to provide test booklets and
individual student score reports, among other things.
ANALYSIS
This bill, an urgency measure:
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1) Requires that the test publisher who is designated by
the State Board of Education to provide standardized
tests under the STAR Program must, in addition to
existing requirements of law and beginning this year
(1998-99), offer to sell school districts "a
schoolsite report that provides a numerical
distribution of the reading scores of all pupils who
took the STAR test."
2) Requires that the STAR test publisher also offer for
sale to school districts, annually beginning in
1998-99, customized reading lists for individual
pupils that may be included with STAR test score
reports that are reported to the pupil's parents or
guardian. Individual reading lists are to include
titles of literature that are appropriate to the
pupil's current reading ability, and will encourage
the pupil to increase his or her reading ability.
3) Requires that literature included in the customized
individual reading lists meet existing legal
requirements for textbooks adopted by the State Board
of Education. (Books need not be on the state
adoption list, but must meet the basic requirements of
fairness and accuracy that are required for adoption.)
4) Requires that the titles on the customized reading
lists shall also be made available on the internet
along with an index that correlates STAR test reading
scores to titles on the list that would be suitable
for pupils in each of the grades 2 through 11.
5) Provides that, subject to the appropriation of funds,
the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall
apportion to school districts up to fifty cents per
pupil in order to allow the districts to purchase the
customized individual reading lists.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Timing. This bill calls for reading lists to be made
available this year. Not only are all district
contracts with Harcourt Brace already negotiated, the
STAR tests are being administered in California
classrooms during April and May. This bill is an
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urgency measure, but the practical considerations seem
to make implementation this year impossible. Among
other things, a thousand contracts would have to be
amended if the publisher is willing to meet the new
conditions. If Harcourt Brace would not be willing to
meet the new conditions, it would seem impossible to
impose a new condition at this late date. Staff
recommends that commencement years in the bill be
revised to the first year of the next negotiated STAR
contract, provided that it is no earlier than
1999-2000.
2) Funding. The bill makes provision for reimbursing
districts up to fifty cents per pupil for the
customized reading lists, but no provision is made to
pay districts for the "schoolsite report ?of reading
scores" that is also mandated on the publisher to make
available to school districts. Furthermore, no
appropriation is included in the bill for any costs.
These matters could be addressed in the budget
process, but the budget process can only address
future costs. Without an appropriation, no funds are
available to implement this urgency legislation.
3) How does one determine the reading level of a book?
It is not at all clear how the reading difficulty of a
book can be determined objectively. Staff understands
that one method that has been proposed involves
counting the pages in the book and the number of
syllables in the words, but such an approach would
seem to ignore content in favor of something that is
easily quantified. Before granting the State's
sanction to a system that may have little validity,
the proposed means of equating reading levels with
reading material should be examined by a neutral panel
of experts to determine its validity for the proposed
task. Staff recommends that provisions of this
measure not become effective until the Superintendent
of Public Instruction, and the Secretary of Education,
have had the process examined and determined to their
satisfaction that reading lists, such as are proposed
in this bill, can be validly equated to specified
reading ability as assessed by the STAR exam.
4) How custom can they be? While the bill calls for "a
customized reading list for each individual pupil in
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grades 2 to 11" it is difficult to imagine that each
of five million lists would differ from all others.
As a practical matter reading lists would have to be
correlated to STAR test scores and there would be only
as many lists as needed to address the potential
number of scores or score ranges. This reality is
acknowledged in another part of the bill that calls
for Internet posting of "an index that correlates
reading scores on the STAR test to titles on the
reading list." Are "customized" lists really needed
if such an indexed list could be produced for
everyone?
5) Individual reading proficiency should be based on STAR
results. Although it appears the obvious intent of
the author to base the individual pupil reading lists
on each pupil's performance on the reading portion of
the STAR test, nothing in the bill says so explicitly.
It would seem wise to explicitly link the individual
reading lists to that individual's performance on the
reading part of the STAR test. Staff recommends the
following amendment:
? each test publisher shall make available, for purchase
by school districts, a customized reading list for
each individual pupil in grades 2 to 11, inclusive
who has taken the reading portion of the STAR test, at
the same time that that test scores are reported to
the parent or guardian pursuant to Section 60643. This
customized reading list shall include titles of
literature that will allow the pupil to practice
reading at his or her current reading level, as
determined by the publisher's review of the pupil's
reading performance on the STAR test, and that will
assist the pupil in achieving a higher level of
reading proficiency.
SUPPORT
Central California Education Legislation Consortium
Exeter Public Schools
Fresno County Office of Education
Kern County Superintendent of Schools
Reading Lions Project
Screen Actors Guild Foundation
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OPPOSITION
None received